Trying for Manaro again

Saturday morning I got woken up at 7 by a phone call from Thomas that went something like this:
"Morning! Keith, Solo and I are headed to Ambae; we'll head to Ambanga today and hike Manaro tomorrow! Wanna come?"
(As I look outside at the rain)
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah! It'll be great!"
"Ummm...yeah, sure."

Two hours later, they showed up at my house and we headed North, to the village where the hike starts. Those of you that read my blog regularly might remember my post about hiking the volcano on my Island (if not, you can read it here); let me tell you, this time was much better.
I remember the last trip as being extremely challenging. Whether it was the fact that I've been here for much longer, or that I wasn't carrying a 30lb backpack, or that we didn't add 6 hours to our hike, or that I've lost about 20lbs, I don't know, but while the hike was still a challenge, I feel much more positive about it than I did last time around.

One thing that definitely made it worth the hike this time around was that we were actually able to see the lake when we got to the top. Here's a picture from last year:

And one from this year:

We also managed to go to both lakes this time (even though we had to hike about an hour in the dark and about 13 hours to do so).

Going to Manaro again was one of my goals for before I leave Ambae, because it was pretty disappointing to spend so long hiking and not even see the cone the first time around.

Manaro, specifically lake Vui, the one that has the cone in the middle, holds a very important place in Ambae custom. According to custom, when you die, your soul comes and resides in this lake with the others that have gone before you. Because of this, there are certain rules for visiting. You can't be too loud; ideally you don't even talk. Our guide told us that if you talk too much while near Lake Vui, the man who lives there (sort of a God, sort of a human) will get mad and will cover up the cone. Another story we were told was that if you like something too much at the top (ex a flower or rock), your soul will yearn too much to come back, and you will return to the Lake sooner than you should (AKA you'll die sooner). This is why you're not allowed to take anything from the top of the volcano.

The tattoo I got after my last hike up Manaro is a very old custom here (that has now pretty much turned into a Peace Corps custom, people here don't get the tattoo much anymore) which is supposed to help your soul find its way to the lake when it dies; if you haven't visited the top in your life, you can't get it. Some even say that if you don't have the tattoo and you die, your soul will be thrown into the ocean to spend the rest of its days with the sharks.

I think I'll finish this post off with a few more pictures from the two lakes. Enjoy!